Vertical social network

ABSTRACT

A method is provided to manage access to a social network from a mobile device, which has a user ID. The method is executed by a server, which manages accesses for a plurality of social networks, each social network being associated with a location and a time window. The method includes: receiving a request from the mobile device to join a social network, the request comprising at least information on the location of the mobile device and the user ID; gathering a timestamp associated with the received request; retrieving at least one social network associated with the location of the mobile device and a time window comprising the time indicated by the timestamp and registering the user ID in association to the at least one social network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of and claims priority fromU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/274,164, filed May 9, 2014, whichclaims priority from European Patent Application No. 13305631.7, filedMay 16, 2013, the contents of both of which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

The present invention relates generally to managing access to a socialnetwork from a mobile device.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

A social networking service is a platform to build social networks orsocial relations among people who, share interests, activities,backgrounds or real-life connections. A social network service consistsof a representation of each user (often a profile), his social links,and a variety of additional services. Social networking is web-basedservices that allow individuals to create a public profile, to create alist of users with whom to share connection, and view and cross theconnections within the system. Most social network services areweb-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet,such as e-mail and instant messaging. Social network sites are variedand they incorporate new information and communication tools such as,mobile connectivity, photo/video/sharing and blogging (Wikipedia).

In recent years the amount of people in the world who use online socialnetwork channels to communicate has increased exponentially. OnlineSocial networks are the virtual representation of social structurescomprised by people who build relationships. Traditional online socialnetwork websites reflect the accumulation of acquaintances a persongathers in the course of his life. They have an open membership approachwhich allows any people to join the community gathered by the socialnetwork regardless their interests, believes, or points of view.

On the other hand, in recent years, there has been a peak on theemergence of online social network websites which are topic-oriented.Allowing people sharing same interests to meet and exchange information.

With all this in mind, the amount of social data generated, meaning thecontent shared on social networks, the diversity of the sources andtools, as well as the need to have a “smarter management” of theinformation being published, pose big challenges for the IT community,in order to find new methods to filter and deliver relevant informationin a more controlled and automatic way.

In particular, access control, or access management, to social networkis a major challenge in order to achieve a smart management of thepeople participating and exchanging information within a social network,particularly when trying to build value-added communities of people.

Location is one of the most important components of user context,extensive knowledge about an individual's interests, behaviors, andrelationships with others can be learned from her locations (Q. Li, Y.Zheng, X. Xie and W.-Y. Ma, Mining user similarity based on locationhistory, in ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2008, ACM). Thus, using geo-locationtechniques, such as GPS, or others geo-location services, some socialnetworks add today a location component to create value. One of the mostpopular social networks that use geo-location is Foursquare™, where theusers can “check in” digitally in physical places and communicate withother users sharing the same location.

However, users of a social network using geo-location to improvecommunities' creation or management may still face some disappointments.Indeed, existing techniques are unable to distinguish between a user ofa social network “checking in” a said location, like a stadium forexample, but in reality assisting to two totally uncorrelated events.People going to a same stadium, but one to assist to a football match,the other to assist to a concert, may not share same interests. Thus,location management of a social network access fails to create coherentcommunities of user within a social network.

Indeed, there is still a need today to improve the access management ofsocial networks in order to create more value-added communities ofinterest among users of these social networks.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

The present system relates to a method to manage access to a socialnetwork from a mobile device, said mobile device comprising an user ID,the method being executed by a server, said server managing the accessesfor a plurality of social networks, each social network being associatedwith a location and a time window, the method comprising the steps ofreceiving a request from the mobile device to join a social network,said request comprising at least information on the location of themobile device and the user ID, gathering a timestamp associated with thereceived request, retrieving at least one social network associated withthe location of the mobile device and a time window comprising the timeindicated by the timestamp and registering the user ID in association tothe at least one social network.

This method advantageously allows controlling the registration to asocial network, the control being based on location and timeinformation. Indeed, request to join a social network received by theserver, depending on location of the mobile device and timestampassociated with the received request, will permit registration of theuser ID associated to a first social network. Thus, only peoplerequesting to join a social network using their mobile device at a givenplace, for example a conference center, and during a certain time frame,for example during a certain day, will be registered at the socialnetwork dedicated to the conference this same day at the conferencecenter. In this example, this method also advantageously suppress theneed to collect and/or maintain a list of attendees to the conference,and further the step of registration of this list of people to a socialnetwork as registration to the dedicated social network is only based onlocation and time.

In a complementary embodiment of present system, access to a givensocial network from the mobile device is authorized if the user ID ofthe mobile device is registered in association to the given socialnetwork.

Advantageously, access to a social network is permitted based on thepreviously described step of registration. Indeed, only registeredpeople would be able to access the social network, thus limiting theaccess to the social network to people being at a certain locationduring a certain timeframe. Thus, if someone who attended a conferenceand registered to a social network related to the said conference usingpresent invention method wants to later access the same social network,the system, i.e. the server implementing the method, would allow accessto this person. As registration is only possible using the method, itprevents people not attending the conference (i.e. not sharing the samelocation & time) to register and thus access the social network.

In a further embodiment of present system, information on the locationof the mobile device comprises information gathered by the mobile devicefrom a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the present system,location of the mobile device could be validated or facilitated usingNear Field Communication technologies. Indeed, a mobile devicecomprising a NFC reader could retrieve information from a NFC tag, saidNFC tag being, for example, installed next to the entrance of aconference room. Information retrieved could be either directly locationinformation (such as embedded GPS position) or information sufficientfor the system to retrieve the location from this information. Forexample, the NFC tag could deliver the information “Millenium Conferencecenter, Building C, Floor 3, Room 42”, allowing the system to directlyretrieve the location. In another implementation, the NFC tag coulddeliver information in the form of an ID, the system being able to makethe correspondence between such ID and a defined location.

In an alternative embodiment of present system, information on thelocation of the mobile device comprises information gathered by themobile device using geo-location techniques.

Advantageously, to determine the location of the mobile device,geo-location techniques allow the mobile to be independent from externaldevices such as NFC tag. Moreover, NFC readers are nowadays not socommon on mobile devices. Thus, the mobile device can rely ongeo-location techniques such as GPS devices, embedded or not within themobile device. Using geo-location techniques participates also to anadvantageous embodiment of the system, not depending on any userinteraction. Indeed, the user does not need to move its mobile devicenext to a NFC tag. Thus, the mobile device can, possibly automaticallyand/or periodically send request to register to a social network,getting automatic registration to social networks corresponding to thecriteria of location and time frame of the request.

In a complementary embodiment of present system, the act of gatheringthe timestamp comprises the acts of retrieving information in thereceived request from the mobile device, the information being gatheredby the mobile device from a NFC tag and determining a timestamp from theretrieved information.

Advantageously, the request sent from the mobile device may compriseinformation gathered by the mobile device from a NFC tag. Saidinformation can be frequently updated by the NFC tag, meaning here thatthe NFC tag can be dynamically updated, implying that in this case theNFC tag needs to be somehow active, or at least possibly updated byanother device. Thus, the NFC tag can provide up to date information,possibly encoded, to the mobile device comprising a NFC reader. Theserver can, possibly after a prior act of decoding, get the timestampfrom the received information. This is particularly advantageous as tolimit possibility of fraud or modification of the timestamp possiblysent by the mobile user in order to get register to a social network outof the authorized time windows.

This is also quite advantageous to un-correlate the act of the check-inagainst a NFC tag, for example when entering a conference room and theact of actually sending the request to the server, if for example thereis no network coverage inside the conference room. Thus, the request canbe put on-hold by the mobile device and sent when network connectivityis retrieved. The server, when receiving the request, would retrieve thetimestamp from the request, possibly decoding some information, and usesaid timestamp instead of the current time of the sending or thereceiving of the request, to determine which social network time windowcorrespond to the retrieved timestamp.

In a complementary embodiment of present system, the method according toany previous claim, further comprising an act of associating a userprofile to the received request from the mobile device, the user profilebeing associated to the user ID.

Advantageously, a user profile is associated to the user ID of themobile device, allowing the user of the mobile device to be registeredwithin a social network with personalized information, such as firstname, last name, phone number, e-mail, title or any other relevantinformation.

In another complementary embodiment of present system, the methodfurther comprises after the act of registering to a social network, theacts of sending a message to the mobile device, said message requestingfor complementary information related to the social network, receiving amessage from the mobile device, with request information and associatingthe received information with the user profile and the social network.

When talking about a social network relating to an event such as aconference, it could be quite advantageous for the people connecting tothe social network to indicate if they are attendees or part of thespeakers. When talking about a social network relating to a sport eventsuch as a football match attendees may indicate which team they support.More generally speaking, users may personalize their registration to agiven social network, possibly complementing an existing user profilewith information in relation with the social network.

In another embodiment of present system, the method includes prior tothe act of registering the user ID in association to the at least onesocial network, the acts of sending a list of at least some of theretrieved social network associated with the location of the mobiledevice to the mobile device, receiving a selection from the sent list ofat least one social network from the mobile device and where the act ofregistering the user ID is done in association to the received selectionof social network.

This is advantageous when several social networks correspond to the samecriteria of location and timestamp. Indeed, the users may receive a listof available social network and choose the social network they want toregister to. This could happen for example if a unique NFC tag is usedin a conference center hosting several conferences at the same time orif the location technique used if not precise enough to distinguishbetween several places.

Finally, one object of the invention concerns a computer program, inparticular computer programs on or in an information medium or memory,suitable for implementing the method for managing access to a socialnetwork from a mobile device object of the invention. These programs canuse any programming language, and be in the form of source code, binarycode, or of code intermediate between source code and object code suchas in a partially compiled form, or in any other desirable form forimplementing the methods according to the invention.

The information medium may be any entity or device capable of storingthe program. For example, the medium can comprise a storage means, suchas a ROM, for example a CD ROM or a microelectronic circuit ROM, or elsea magnetic recording means, for example a diskette (floppy disk) or ahard disk.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is explained in further detail, and by way of example,with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGS. 1A and 1B show an exemplary embodiment of a mobile device and aserver in accordance with present system;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary illustration of a use case of registration toa social network in accordance with an embodiment of the present system;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary illustration of a use case of refusing theregistration to a social network in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent system;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flowchart for managing access to a socialnetwork according to an embodiment of the present method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

The following are descriptions of illustrative embodiments that whentaken in conjunction with the following drawings will demonstrate theabove noted features and advantages, as well as further ones. In thefollowing description, for purposes of explanation rather thanlimitation, illustrative details are set forth such as architecture,interfaces, techniques, element attributes, etc. However, it will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodimentsthat depart from these details would still be understood to be withinthe scope of the appended claims. Moreover, for the purpose of clarity,detailed descriptions of well known devices, circuits, tools, techniquesand methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of thepresent system. It should be expressly understood that the drawings areincluded for illustrative purposes and do not represent the scope of thepresent system. In the accompanying drawings, like reference numbers indifferent drawings may designate similar elements.

The method of present invention is implemented via applications executedrespectively by the mobile device 100 or the server 190. For claritysake, it should be understood that when writing “the mobile device doessomething” means “the application executed on the mobile device doessomething”. Just like “the application does something” means “theapplication executed by the mobile device

FIG. 1A is an illustration of an exemplary mobile device 100 used in thepresent system. The mobile device 100 comprises at least a displayelement 110, a control circuit 120, a processor 130, a network element140, an input element 150, a microphone 160, a Near Field Communication(NFC) reader 170 and possibly a speaker 180.

Network element 140 may comprise various network modules allowingnetwork connectivity of the mobile device 100. Network element 140 mayinclude for example a Bluetooth module, a GSM module, or any moduleproviding a network connectivity to the mobile device 100. In otherwords, the network element 140 is managing the connections between themobile device 100 and a mobile network, and possibly other mobiledevices, via network technologies such as, but not limited to, GSM, 3G,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and so on.

In the present system, the user interaction with and manipulation of theapplication program rendered on a GUI can be achieved using:

-   -   the display element 110, or screen, which could be a touch        panel;    -   the input device 150 such as a key panel when available on the        mobile device 100, or an external keyboard connected via the        network element 140 (via Bluetooth connection for example).

Processor 130 may control the generation and the rendering of the GUI onthe display element 110 (the information required to generate andmanipulate the GUI resides entirely on the mobile device 100) or simplythe rendering when the GUI is provided by a remote (i.e. networkconnected via network element 140) device (the information, including insome instances the GUI itself is retrieved via a network connection).However, advantageously, a control circuit 120 may be dedicated to suchtask of rendering the GUI on the display element 110. For simplicitysake, in the following description it will be considered that thesentence “the mobile device renders on the display element a GUI of anapplication program” should be understood either as “the processor ofthe mobile device renders on the display element a GUI of an applicationprogram” or “the control circuit of the mobile device on the displayelement a GUI of an application program” according to the way the mobiledevice 100 is implemented. The fact that the rendering on the displayelement is controlled either by the processor directly or by a controlcircuit depends on hardware constraints.

A Near Field Communication (NFC) reader 170 is available. The NFC readerallows the device to establish radio communication with other NFCenabled devices, by touching them together or bringing them into closeproximity, usually no more than a few centimeters. Communication is alsopossible between the mobile device 100 and an unpowered NFC chip, calleda “tag”. The NFC tag can be considered as a passive device. The NFCreader 170 can retrieve information from a NFC tag by bringing themobile device 100 close to the NFC tag.

Hereafter, description of the present system will focus on NFCtechnologies, but it should be understood that others technologies thanNFC technologies may be used. More generally, Radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) technologies can be used in place or in complementof NFC technologies.

NFC technology can also be used in complement with other radiocommunications technologies such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technologies. Forexample, communication between the mobile device 100 and anotherelectronic device can be set up using NFC technology, but actual datatransfer between the two devices, after the setting-up of thecommunication, may rely on higher-speed technologies, like Wi-Fi orBluetooth.

A microphone 160 can monitor or receive audio signals. Normally used tocapture the voice of a user for voice application—e.g. phone—, themicrophone 160 could also possibly receive ultrasound signal. Themicrophone 160 may be used in complement of the NFC reader 170. In analternative embodiment of the present system, the microphone 160 may beused to detect continuous or periodic ultrasound signal emitted by aspeaker located in a certain place.

A speaker 180 may advantageously be implemented in the mobile device100. This speaker 180 can be used by voice application to render thevoice of a correspondent for a phone application program, or to listento music played by the mobile device. This speaker 180 mayadvantageously emit an ultrasound or any kind of sound according toapplication program instructions. Thus, in complement with themicrophone 160, the speaker 180 may be used to establish two wayscommunications.

Additionally, the mobile device may advantageously possess ageo-location module like a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver.

FIG. 1B is an illustration of an exemplary server 190 used in thepresent system. The server 190 comprises at least a processor 195, anetwork element 196 and possibly a database 197.

Database 197 may be hosted directly within the server 190, or may behosted in another server or in the cloud, the server 190 accessing thedatabase through the network element 196. Database 197 stores at least aplurality of social networks, each social network being associated witha location and a time window. Depending on the embodiment of presentsystem, the database may also store location information in associationwith, for example, GPS coordinates, name of a places or a location ID.

In the present system, a user joining one social network will beassociated to an identifier to a social network hosted by the database197. Each social network may be described as a social structure made upof a set of users (such as individuals or organizations) and the dyadicties—i.e. links—between these users. Its technical implementationcorresponds to a graph structure defining relationships or links betweena plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to an identifier for theuser in the social network. The graph structure and the plurality ofnodes correspond to entries in the database 197.

In one embodiment, the database 197 stores a plurality of NFC tag ID,each NFC tag ID being associated to a location.

Processor 195 may be used by the server to retrieve time, possiblysynchronizing through the network element to a Network Time Protocol(NTP) server.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary illustration of a use case of registration toa social network in accordance with an embodiment of the present system.In a first step as shown in box 1 of FIG. 2 (in short FIG. 2 (1)), theuser needs to install an application—or computer program—to accesssocial networks on the mobile device 100. Advantageously, theapplication could be pre-installed on the mobile device 100, for exampleby a network operator. But if not available, the user may need to lookfor the application on an application market such as Google Play™ orItunes™ and then download the application. Information to download andinstall the application can possibly also be retrieved using, forexample, a QR code or a NFC tag. Alternatively, the application can beinstalled on the mobile device 100 from any information medium or memorysuch as for example Secure Digital (SD) card. The step of installing theapplication comprises a step of associating a user identifier (ID) tothe mobile device. This user ID could be randomly generated wheninstalling the application, could be generated from, for example, a MACaddress of a Wi-Fi interface of the mobile device (if any), or it couldeven be entered manually by the user during the installation process, orretrieved from a file, said file being stored either locally or on adistant server.

In FIG. 2 (2) at a certain date and time, the user attends an event, forexample a conference, the event being hosted in a given conferencecenter. This event or conference is also associated to a social network,said social network being associated with a location and a time window.For illustration purposes, the user attends the event at a time withinthe time windows associated to the social network associated with theevent and located at the same location associated to the social network.The conference center, or possibly the conference room of the conferencecenter, is associated to a NFC tag or reader installed advantageouslynext to the entrance. The exact nature of the information embedded inthe NFC tag may depend on the embodiment of the present system, but inone embodiment, it could comprise, for example, Global PositioningSystem (GPS) coordinates of the location of the conference room, or ofthe reader itself, a location ID or the location name.

In FIG. 2 (3), the user has the mobile device 100 to execute or run theapplication previously installed on step (1). Depending on theimplementation of the present system, the user may need to launchmanually a request to join a social network, or, said request can betriggered automatically when the mobile device 100 detects a NFC tagusing its NFC reader 170. In both cases, the application running on themobile device 100 retrieves information from the NFC tag through the NFCreader 170 and sends a request to join a social network. The requestcomprises at least information on the location of the mobile deviceretrieved from the NFC tag and the user ID.

In one embodiment of present system, the act of reading a NFC tag by themobile device 100 may trigger successively the acts of installing anapplication as described in FIG. 2 (1) and then the acts describedpreviously in FIG. 2 (3). In other words, the act of reading a NFC tagby the mobile device may trigger successively the acts of downloading anapplication, installing the application and the application sending arequest to join a social network.

In FIG. 2 (4) the server receives the request from the mobile device 100to join a social network, said request comprising at least informationon the location of the mobile device and the user ID. The server gathersa timestamp associated with the received request. This could be done byassociating to the request the time of arrival of the request. Inanother embodiment, the mobile device 100 may include within the sentrequest a timestamp, said timestamp could be retrieved by the server andused to gather a timestamp associated with the received request. Theserver retrieves the social network associated with the location of themobile device and a time window comprising the time indicated by thetimestamp, that is to say, the social network associated to the event ofFIG. 2 (2). Possibly, the server 190 retrieves such information from thedatabase 197. The server then registers the user ID in association tothe retrieved social network associated to the event. From this step,the user can access the social network from its mobile device, as theuser ID is registered in association with the social network.

In particular, as illustrated in FIG. 2 (6), if the user tries to accessthe social network from its mobile device some days after the event,meaning outside the time windows associated to the event, the access isauthorized (FIG. 2 (7)) as the user ID is registered in associationwithin the social network.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary illustration of a use case of refusing theregistration to a social network in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent system. The user of FIG. 3 is different from the user of FIG. 2,meaning that the mobile device used is different.

FIG. 3 (8) step is similar to FIG. 2 (1) step. In FIG. 3 (9) the user,different from the user of FIG. 2, goes to the same place as describedin FIG. 2 (2), that is to say an event location such as a conferencecenter. Ideally, as described in FIG. 2 (2), a NFC tag is installed nextto the entrance of the conference center or conference room. In thesituation described in FIG. 3 (9), the user goes to the conferencecenter at a time which is not within the time window associated with thesocial network associated with the event of FIG. 2 (2). In FIG. 3 (10),the user request to join a social network, meaning that the user'smobile device sends a request to the server to join a social network. InFIG. 3 (11), the server retrieves social networks associated with thelocation of the mobile device and a time window comprising the timeindicated by the timestamp. This time, contrary to FIG. 2, the timestampis not within the time window associated with the event. So, as only thelocation corresponds to the location associated to the social network,but not the timestamp, the user ID is not registered in association tothe social network, meaning that the user is not allowed to access thesocial network (FIG. 3 (12)).

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flowchart for managing access to a socialnetwork according to an embodiment of the present method.

During a first step 400, a user with a mobile device such as describedin FIG. 1A needs to install a social network application, or client, onits mobile device 100. The social network application may be retrievedfrom an application market such as Google Play™ or Itunes™.Alternatively, the social network application may have beenpre-installed by the network operator. The social network applicationmay be a dedicated application or may be a plug-in to an existing socialnetwork, for example an application for Facebook™ (FacebookApp™).

In the first case, the social network application will manage access todifferent social networks that could be seen as sub groups of the socialnetwork within the social network application. For simplicity sake suchsub groups of the social network accessed by the social networkapplication are called hereafter in the text “social networks”.

In the second case, social network hereafter in the text should beunderstood as a subgroup within the existing social network. Thus, thesocial network application, in this second case a plug-in to an existingsocial network, will manage access to subgroups of the existing socialnetwork. For simplicity sake and coherency with previous case, suchsubgroups are hereafter called social networks.

For example, a social network hereafter in the text can be understood asa group within Facebook™ or LinkedIn™, group created especially inrelation with an event. Access to this group can be managed by thesocial network plug-in, the application object of the present invention.

During installation procedure of the social network application on themobile device 100, a user ID is associated to the mobile device. Theuser ID could be randomly generated when installing the social networkapplication, could be generated from, for example, a MAC address of aWi-Fi interface of the mobile device (if any), or it could even beentered manually by the user during the installation process, orretrieved from a file, said file being stored either locally or on adistant server.

For simplicity sake, the following description should focus on the caseof a social network application, or client, as a dedicated application.The client manages the communication with a server application, saidserver application being hosted or executed on a server 190 as describedin FIG. 1B.

In an optional step 405, the social network application may request theuser to create or complete a user profile. Alternatively, the userprofile may be retrieved by the application from another social network.This last option is particularly relevant when the application installedduring step 400 is a plug-in to an existing social network. Once createdor completed, the user profile is stored in association with the user IDon the mobile device 100 and/or sent on a database server to be stored,possibly the database server being the server 190. In other words, theuser profile can be stored in database 197.

In a step 410, the mobile device 100 sends a request to join a socialnetwork to the server 190, said request comprising at least informationon the location of the mobile device and the user ID. According to theembodiment of present system, the trigger to send the request therequest can be different, the different option being compatible. In oneembodiment, the triggering act could be the mobile device reading a NFCtag. In another embodiment, the mobile device may periodically send arequest to the serve 190. In a complementary embodiment, the mobiledevice may send a request when detecting that the location of the mobiledevice has changed.

Thus, the request sent by the mobile device 100 comprises locationinformation. Location information should be understood as informationallowing the server 190 to retrieve a location using said information.In one embodiment, such location information could be the output resultof a GPS module integrated in the mobile device 100. In anotherembodiment, the location information may be information retrieved fromreading a NFC tag. Such information could be of different forms. Itcould be for example GPS coordinates or the name of a location, ideallythe name of the location embedded in the NFC tag corresponding to thephysical location of the NFC tag. Information retrieved from the NFC tagcould also be presented as an ID or code.

The request sent by the mobile device 100 to the server 190 alsocomprises the user ID associated to the mobile device 100. As seenbefore, this user ID could be chosen as a fix parameter, depending onlyon characteristics of the mobile device 100 (e. g. MAC address of oneinterface of the mobile device 100 or the International Mobile StationEquipment Identity (IMEI) of the mobile device 100, or any othercharacteristic of mobile device 100), or it could be generated wheninstalling the application of step 400. Alternatively, the user ID mayalso be a parameter defined manually by the user of the mobile device100.

In a step 415, the server 190 gathers a timestamp associated with thereceived request. The timestamp could be the time at which the event ofreceiving the request is recorded by the server 190. Alternatively, theserver 190 may retrieve the timestamp from the received request itself.In this last embodiment, the timestamp would not be the time at whichthe request was received by the server 190 but possibly the time atwhich the request was elaborated by the mobile device, or againalternatively, the time at which the request was sent by the mobiledevice. Indeed, time of elaboration, meaning when the mobile device 100built the request, could be different from the time of sending therequest by the mobile device 100. This is particularly true if themobile device 100 has no network coverage (for any reason: technicalincident, no network coverage at the event location, mobile device setin airplane mode) and must wait to recover network coverage to send theon-hold request. Alas, in term of security, in this case, the requestmay be forged by the mobile device using a forged timestamp in order toget fraudulent access to a social network.

In another embodiment, in order to get the flexibility of previousembodiment while preserving security, the act of gathering the timestamp comprises the acts of retrieving information in the receivedrequest from the mobile device, the information being gathered by themobile device from a NFC tag and determining a time stamp from theretrieved information. Indeed, the NFC tag read by the mobile device 100may dynamically generate a code that would be integrated in the requestsent to the server. This code could be retrieved by the server 190, andfrom this code, the exact timing or timestamp of the reading of the NFCtag could be retrieved. This embodiment may rely on dynamic ornon-passive NFC tag linked to a clock and a pre-sharing of a codebetween this NFC tag and the server 190. In one embodiment, the dynamicnon-passive NFC tag may be connected to the server 190, the server 190controlling the information embedded within the NFC tag. This embodimentallows an advantageous control of the information, retrieved by themobile device 100.

In a complementary embodiment, the step 410 further comprises an act ofassociating a user profile to the received request from the mobiledevice, the user profile being associated to the user ID. The userprofile can be retrieved from the database 197 as described in step 405.

In an alternative embodiment of present system, the act of reading a NFCtag by the mobile device 100 may trigger successively the acts ofinstalling an application as described in step 400 and then the actsdescribed previously in step 410. In other words, the act of reading aNFC tag by the mobile device may trigger successively the acts ofdownloading an application, installing the application and theapplication sending a request to a server 190 to join a social network.

In a step 420, which step can be executed before, after or at the sametime as the step 415, the server 190 retrieves a location from thereceived request from the mobile device 100. This step 420 depends onhow the mobile device 100 embedded the information on location withinthe sent request to the server 190. Information on the location of themobile device comprises information gathered by the mobile device usinggeo-location techniques. Geo-location techniques may be typically GPStechniques. In this case, the server 190 may retrieve GPS coordinatesfrom the received request, or possibly an ID collected by the mobiledevice 100, using the NFC reader 170, from a NFC tag. In this case,information on the location of the mobile device comprises informationgathered by the mobile device from a NFC tag. When the locationinformation of the request from the mobile device is gathered from a NFCtag, in the form of a collected ID, the server 190 may need to retrievefrom a database, either locally, for example from database 197, orconnecting to a remote database server, the location corresponding tothe collected ID.

In a step 430, the server 190 retrieves, possibly from its database 197,at least one social network associated with the location of the mobiledevice 100 and a time window comprising the time indicated by thetimestamp.

If during the step 420 the location of the mobile device 100 isretrieved in the form of a location name, for example “Conference centerMillenium, room 42, Paris, France”, the location associated to thesocial network should match somehow the location name of the mobiledevice 100. Matching rules are dependant upon the embodiment of thepresent system and may strict, exact matching of the name of thelocation of the mobile device and name of the location associated to asocial network being requested. In another embodiment, matching of thenames of the locations may obey to some rules like for example regularexpression rules.

If during the step 420 the location of the mobile device 100 isretrieved in the form of GPS coordinates, the location associated to asocial network could be defined as a zone. In this case, the matching ofthe location retrieved by the mobile device 100 and the locationassociated to a social network is performed by checking if the GPScoordinates corresponding to the location of the mobile device 100 arewithin the zone of the location associated to the social network. Inanother embodiment, if the location associated to a social network isdefined also as GPS coordinates, the matching could be defined bymeasuring the distance between the two locations and comparing thisdistance to a threshold. Moreover, a precision factor of the retrievedlocation of the mobile device may be used. In this embodiment, thisprecision factor, i.e. a predefined distance representing an acceptederror attached to the location of the mobile device or to the locationassociated to the social network, is removed from the distance betweenthe GPS coordinates of the mobile device location and locationassociated to the social network before comparing to the threshold. Whenthe resulting distance is below or possibly equal to the threshold, theserver 190 considers that the location of the mobile device 100corresponds to the location associated to the social network, or inother words that the two locations match.

The timestamp gathered during step 415, in association with the receivedrequest, is compared to the different time windows associated to theplurality of social networks. A social network is selected when theassociated time window contains the gathered timestamp. In other words,if the time window “Apr. 1, 2013 14:00 GMT to Apr. 1, 2013 18:00 GMT”(GMT for Greenwich Mean Time) is associated to a social network, thegathered timestamp would need to belong to this time window or timeinterval, meaning that the timestamp should be higher than or equal to“Apr. 1, 2013 14:00 GMT” and lower than or equal to “Apr. 1, 2013 18:00GMT”. It is to be noted that a time zone (for example, GMT,UTC—Coordinated Universal Time—, UTC+4, and so on) should advantageouslybe associated to both the time windows and the timestamp. In someembodiment of present system, time zone may not be used, but this maypotentially lead to confusion or error if the system is used acrossdifferent time zones or with mobile device and server using differenttime settings.

The server 190 may begin by retrieving a first list of at least onesocial network associated with the location of the mobile device 100 andthen, from this first list of retrieved social network, retrieve thesocial networks with an associated time window comprising the timeindicated by the timestamp.

Alternatively, the server 190 may begin by retrieving a second list ofat least social network with an associated time window comprising thetime indicated by the timestamp and then, from this second list,retrieve the social networks associated with the location of the mobiledevice.

In another embodiment, the acts of retrieving the first and second listsmay be executed in parallel. Thus the server 190 may retrieve at leastone social network associated with the location of the mobile device 100and a time window comprising the time indicated by the timestamp byselecting social networks belonging to both the first list(corresponding to a good location) and the second list (corresponding toa good timing).

In the step 440, the server 190 registers the user ID in association tothe at least one social network retrieved in previous step 430. Saidregistration may comprise the act of storing the user ID in the database197. In one advantageous embodiment of present system, the mobile device100 will receive a notification sent by the server 190 that the user IDassociated to the mobile device 100 has been registered in associationwith the at least one retrieved social network. Indeed, the mobiledevice 100 may keep track locally of social network registered inassociation with its user ID, allowing further quick access to thesesocial networks.

In the step 450, access to the at least one retrieved social network isauthorized to the mobile device 100. Indeed, access to a given socialnetwork from a mobile device is authorized if the user ID associated tothe mobile device is registered in association to the given socialnetwork. Thus, the user, using its mobile device 100, may access anytimea social network once the registration step 440 has been successfullyconducted at least one time. Like that, only people attending to aspecific event, said event being defined by a certain location and timewindow, can possibly register and later access to a social networkspecially created and associated with the event.

Once access has been authorized for a user, that is to say, to themobile device used by the user, content dedicated to said social networkmay be accessed by the mobile device. In other words, once access isvalidated, the server may send the social network to the mobile device100 in a step 460. This content may be totally dedicated to the socialnetwork, possibly content uploaded by the users connected to said socialnetwork. In complement, content may be fetched from others socialnetwork depending on the users—i.e. information contained in the userprofile—connected to the social network. In other words, the userprofile associated to a user ID may contain information allowing theserver 190 to fetch information from others social networks (for examplelogin and password to access another social network).

Finally, the above discussion is intended to be merely illustrative ofthe present system and should not be construed as limiting the appendedclaims to any particular embodiment or group of embodiments. Thus, whilethe present system has been described with reference to exemplaryembodiments, such as embodiment described in FIG. 4, it should also beappreciated that numerous modifications and alternative embodiments maybe devised by those having ordinary skill in the art without departingfrom the broader and intended spirit and scope of the present system asset forth in the claims that follow. Further, while exemplaryillustrations were provided to facilitate an understanding of thepresent system, other system to manage access to a social network may beprovided in accordance with further embodiments of the present system.For instance, NFC tag may be replaced with a RFID tag or any contactlesstechnology. Alternative embodiment may even replace the reading of theNFC tag by the mobile device 100 requesting the user to enter manually acode that could be written on a specific tag, or even simpler, byentering directly the name of the location, possibly offering to chooseamong a predefined list of locations.

The section headings included herein are intended to facilitate a reviewbut are not intended to limit the scope of the present system.Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative manner and are not intended to limit the scope of theappended claims.

In interpreting the appended claims, it should be understood that:

a) the word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of other elementsor acts than those listed in a given claim;

b) the word “a” or an preceding an element does not exclude the presenceof a plurality of such elements;

c) any reference signs in the claims do not limit their scope;

d) several “means” may be represented by the same item or hardware orsoftware implemented structure or function;

e) any of the disclosed elements may be comprised of hardware portions(e.g., including discrete and integrated electronic circuitry), softwareportions (e.g., computer programming), and any combination thereof;

f) hardware portions may be comprised of one or both of analog anddigital portions;

g) any of the disclosed devices or portions thereof may be combinedtogether or separated into further portions unless specifically statedotherwise;

h) no specific sequence of acts or steps is intended to be requiredunless specifically indicated; and

i) the term “plurality of” an element includes two or more of theclaimed element, and does not imply any particular range of number ofelements; that is, a plurality of elements may be as few as twoelements, and may include an immeasurable number of elements.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising the following acts: reading aNFC tag by a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a user ID;sending a request to join a social network from the mobile device to aserver, said request comprising at least information gathered from theNFC tag on a location of the mobile device and the user ID, wherein theact of reading the NFC tag triggers the act of sending the request;managing access to the social network from the mobile device, whereinthe managing is executed by the server, said server managing theaccesses for a plurality of social networks, each social network beingassociated with a location and a time window, and wherein managingcomprises: receiving the request from the mobile device to join thesocial network, said request comprising at least the information on thelocation of the mobile device and the user ID; gathering a timestampassociated with the received request; retrieving at least one socialnetwork associated with the location of the mobile device and a timewindow comprising the time indicated by the timestamp; and registeringthe user ID in association to the at least one social network.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein further access to a given socialnetwork from the mobile device is authorized by the server if the userID of the mobile device is registered in association to the given socialnetwork.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said NFC tagdynamically generates a code to be integrated into said request, saidcode being retrieved by the server to retrieve the time-stamp of thereading of the NFC tag by the mobile device.
 4. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the information on the location of the mobile devicecomprises information gathered by the mobile device using geo-locationtechniques.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering thetimestamp comprises acts of: retrieving information in the receivedrequest from the mobile device, the information being gathered by themobile device from the NFC tag, and determining a timestamp from theretrieved information.
 6. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising an act of the server associating a user profile to thereceived request from the mobile device, the user profile beingassociated to the user ID.
 7. The method according to claim 6, furthercomprising after the act of registering to a social network, the actsof: sending a message to the mobile device, said message requesting forcomplementary information related to the social network, receiving amessage from the mobile device, with request information, andassociating the received information with the user profile and thesocial network.
 8. The method according to claim 1, further includingprior to the act of registering the user ID in association to the atleast one social network, the acts of: sending a list of at least someof the retrieved social network associated with the location of themobile device to the mobile device, and receiving a selection from thesent list of at least one social network from the mobile device, andwhere the act of registering the user ID is done in association to thereceived selection of social network.
 9. A non-transitory computerreadable medium comprising an application stored thereon and executableby a processor, wherein the application configures the processor of aserver to execute a method comprising: managing access to a socialnetwork from a mobile device, said mobile device comprising a user ID,said server managing the accesses for a plurality of social networks,each social network being associated with a location and a time window,and wherein managing comprises: receiving a request from the mobiledevice to join a social network, said request comprising at leastinformation on a location of the mobile device and the user ID and beingsent by the mobile device in response to the mobile device reading anNFC tag; gathering a timestamp associated with the received request;retrieving at least one social network associated with the location ofthe mobile device and a time window comprising the time indicated by thetimestamp; and registering the user ID in association to the at leastone social network, wherein the information on the location of themobile device comprises information gathered by the mobile device fromthe NFC tag.
 10. A server managing a plurality of social networks, eachsocial network being associated with a location and a time window, theserver comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing acomputer program; and a processor configured by the computer program toimplement acts of: receiving a request from a mobile device to join asocial network, said request comprising at least information on alocation of the mobile device and the user ID and being sent by themobile device in response to the mobile device reading an NFC tag;gathering a timestamp associated with the received request; retrievingat least one social network associated with the location of the mobiledevice and a time window comprising the time indicated by the timestamp; and registering the user ID in association to the at least onesocial network, wherein the information on the location of the mobiledevice comprises information gathered by the mobile device from the NFCtag.
 11. A mobile device for accessing a social network, said mobiledevice comprising: a user ID, a non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring a computer program; and a processor configured by the computerprogram to implement acts of: reading a NFC tag; gathering informationon a location of the mobile device from the NFC tag; and sending arequest to a server to join a social network, the request comprising atleast the information on the location of the mobile device, a timestampand the user ID, wherein the act of reading the NFC tag triggers the actof sending the request.
 12. The mobile device according to claim 11,wherein the mobile device is configured to gather the information on thelocation of the mobile device using a geo-location technique.
 13. Themobile device according to claim 11, the mobile device further beingconfigured to: receive from the server a list of social networksassociated with the location of the mobile device, and send a selectionfrom the list of social networks received to the server.
 14. The mobiledevice according to claim 11, wherein said NFC tag dynamically generatesa code to be integrated into said request, said code being retrieved bythe server to retrieve the time-stamp of the reading of the NFC tag bythe mobile device.